Visa East Africa presented its view on AI‑assisted commerce at Glovo Kenya’s Future of Commerce Summit, noting the need to balance convenience with payment authority.

Research cited by Visa showed that 89% of respondents would employ an AI agent to shop, yet only 29% felt comfortable letting the same agent complete the checkout.

The disparity reflects consumers’ willingness to let AI search and compare products while remaining cautious about delegating payment decisions.

Visa highlighted payment tokenisation as a key technology to protect card credentials, using transaction‑specific tokens that limit an AI agent’s spending to a single authorised purchase.

Tokenisation alone does not guarantee correct purchases; it must be combined with clear authorisation rules, spending limits and dispute‑resolution processes.

Visa also outlined broader initiatives such as Visa Accept for small‑business merchants and Visa Pay for virtual cards, aiming to streamline digital payments across channels.

For AI‑driven checkout to gain traction, providers must ensure customers can see when an agent is merely recommending versus when it is authorising a payment, with explicit approval steps and transparent transaction records.

Visa’s message underscores that the future adoption of AI agents hinges on delivering both security through tokenisation and user‑controlled limits that preserve confidence in digital commerce.